Cleaning blade including modified portion including impregnated portion and surface layer, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus including the cleaning blade

Abstract

A cleaning blade includes an elastic member including a contact portion to contact the surface of a member to be cleaned and remove an extraneous matter adhering to the surface of the member. The contact portion includes a modified portion including at least one of an impregnated portion including a first cured material formed of a first curing composition in a thickness direction from the surface of the contact portion; and a surface layer formed of a second curing composition on the surface of the contact portion. The surface of the modified portion has a tack maximum value not greater than 3.0 [gf/mm 2 ].

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A cleaning blade, comprising:
 an elastic member including a contact portion to contact the surface of a member to be cleaned and remove an extraneous matter adhering to the surface of the member, 
 wherein the contact portion includes a modified portion including at least one of:
 an impregnated portion including a first cured material formed of a first curing composition in a thickness direction from the surface of the contact portion; and 
 a surface layer formed of a second curing composition on the surface of the contact portion, and 
 
 wherein the surface of the modified portion has a tack maximum value not greater than 3.0 gf/mm 2 , and 
 wherein the modified portion has a tack maximum value not greater than 6.0 gf/mm 2  at the depth of 5 μm from an undersurface of the blade. 
 
     
     
       2. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein the surface layer has a thickness of from 0.3 to 5.0 μm. 
     
     
       3. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein the modified portion has a surface roughness of from 0.20 to 1.00 μm on an undersurface of the blade. 
     
     
       4. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein the elastic member has a Martens hardness of from 1.0 to 15.0 N/mm 2  on the surface 20 μm from an edge ridgeline. 
     
     
       5. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein each of the first curing composition and the second curing composition includes a (meth)acrylate compound. 
     
     
       6. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein the first curing composition includes a (meth)acrylate compound having an alicyclic structure having 6 or more carbon atoms in its molecule. 
     
     
       7. The cleaning blade of  claim 1 , wherein the second curing composition includes a (meth)acrylate compound having a pentaerythritol structure in its molecule. 
     
     
       8. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
 an image bearer; 
 a charger to charge the surface of the image bearer; 
 an irradiator to irradiate the surface of the image bearer to form an electrostatic latent image; 
 an image developer to develop the electrostatic latent image with a toner to form a visible image; 
 a transferer to transfer the visible image onto a recording medium; 
 a fixer to fix the visible image on the recording medium; and 
 the cleaning blade according to  claim 1  to remove the toner remaining on the image bearer. 
 
     
     
       9. A process cartridge, comprising:
 an image bearer; and 
 the cleaning blade according to  claim 1  to remove the toner remaining on the image bearer.